


Shades of Green

by silveryink



Series: Start Over [5]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Bruce Banner Is a Good Bro, Conversations? I guess?, Frost giants don't do well with fire giants, Gen, I was trying something different with this, Loki & Bruce Banner friendship, Loki (Marvel) is a Good Bro, Loki has multiple degrees y'all know he wanted to blend in with the rest of Midgard, Loki's super powerful but not invincible, Thor (Marvel) is a Good Bro, fire giants - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-23
Updated: 2018-10-23
Packaged: 2019-08-06 12:42:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16387952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silveryink/pseuds/silveryink
Summary: Somewhere along the line, Loki and Bruce had become good friends.





	Shades of Green

Somewhere along the line, Loki and Bruce had become good friends. Loki supposed it had started when the scientist had helped them stop Hela from her vengeful quest, when he had razed Asgard completely. Sometimes he still felt guilty for it, though the feeling wasn’t as bad as it had been on the Statesman.

That must have been when they started talking. Their rooms were pretty close to each other, and Loki was sure that he’d woken Bruce with his screams on more than one occasion. The scientist never brought it up unless Loki did, though, and Loki was glad of that. They had worked together to fix the parts of the ship that had been damaged by the goddess of death in the middle of the battle.

Loki had been terrified of unleashing the Hulk at first (he wouldn’t admit it, but the beast also brought back unpleasant memories of the Titan), before he had started to talk to Bruce. The man was actually a good conversationalist, he realised. One day, he’d even started talking to the Hulk.

_“Hulk sorry,” the green beast rumbled. Loki looked up from the ground, where he was lacing his boot. “What on Earth for?” he asked. He wondered how he was so calm. He and the Hulk had only interacted on the training floor so far. Even now, they were just done with a training session._

_“For smashing puny god.”_

_Loki frowned, remembering the incident. It had cleared his mind of the sceptre’s influence. “I appreciate it, but it would mean a lot to me if you didn’t call me ‘puny god’.”_

_Hulk looked thoughtful for a moment. “Tiny god?”_

_Loki didn’t know whether to smile or sigh exasperatedly. “I’ll take it,” he muttered._

He smiled at the scientist when he walked into the labs in New Asgard. Bruce had moved to Norway, which he found to be remarkably stress-free. The Hulk seemed to like the open air too, which was a bonus. While Bruce missed Tony, he was glad to have Thor, Brunnhilde, and Loki with him.

****

Loki stumbled back from the sudden wave of fire, stamping out the flames from his cape. Trust his luck, New Asgard simply _had_ to be attacked by a wayward Muspell giant. “Brunnhilde! Thor! Bruce!”

All he could hear was a faint murmur, aside from the sharp crackling of fire. He swallowed back nausea as he considered what to do. Things didn’t look too good, all options considered. Loki cast a glance around the terrain and spotted a small ledge nearby. He would have to risk a jump.

He braced himself before leaping gracefully from the rock shelf that isolated him from the others. He landed at the very edge of the ledge and pinwheeled his arms frantically as he tried to regain his balance. Loki’s eyes burned and he coughed as smoke filled the air. He felt the rock above the ledge and smiled. He could climb this.

Curse his optimism, was his next thought.

He could tell that it was going to be a slow process the minute he felt the headache build at the base of his skull. He shoved back all other distractions and began to scale the cliff-face. He slipped more than once, and stopped quite often to cough into a free hand as he dangled over open space by the other. His headache had become a migraine that sent shockwaves of pain every time he moved. His vision was hazy, and his lungs burned for clean air.

He kept climbing.

After what seemed like an eternity, when he reached up to grip rock, he felt rough blades of grass. He pulled himself up as best as he could, before his strength gave out and he nearly fell back into the chasm. Strong hands gripped him and pulled him out. He collapsed onto the grass, coughing and drawing huge breaths of fresh air.

The last thing he remembered seeing was Thor’s anxious face swimming in and out of his vision.

****

Bruce saw Loki fall into the newly-created chasm. He started forward, but a huge burst of flame stopped him in his tracks. Horror was the first thing he felt – Loki was a Frost Giant, and Muspells were their natural opposites (and enemies, but what did that matter). The second was a surge of protectiveness that emanated from not only him (which was already pretty surprising) but from the Hulk as well.

Bruce decided to let the other guy out. He would probably be of better help anyway. A moment later, his body writhed and grew into the Hulk’s musclebound, towering figure. The Hulk roared wordlessly and leaped onto the Muspell, pumelling him with his fists.

He leaped back onto the grassy terrain when the Muspell fell below, smoking and charred, but not burning bright as the giant had moments ago. The Hulk heard a small sound behind him and turned to see a pale hand grip the grass at the edge of the cliff. This was a task for Banner, he decided, and transformed back.

Bruce took a moment to orient himself and yelled for Thor, who sprinted over immediately. Bruce gestured towards Loki, who seemed to be hauling himself up through sheer willpower, and the two of them ran over to the cliffside and pulled him up. The trickster collapsed onto the grass, rolling over and coughing.

Bruce didn’t like how the coughs sounded. He guessed that Loki had been breathing nothing but smoke from the Muspell in the last few minutes (or hour? Bruce wasn’t sure, time was funny when he was in the Hulk). Loki flopped back, face upwards, motionless. Thor looked up at Bruce with some level of desperation. Bruce needed no persuasion to help the trickster.

Loki was unnaturally pale, even considering his usual complexion. His hands were bleeding, no doubt because the rock he had been climbing must have cut into it. His breaths were shallow and his expression was drawn tight, presumably from pain. Bruce wondered what the scan results from the hospital would say.

He looked up at Thor. “We need to get him to the hospital. Away from here, until this place becomes less… on fire. He’s passed out from smoke inhalation, otherwise he seems to be fine. Apart from the cuts on his hands. But we can take care of those. You said he can’t heal quickly from burns?”

Thor nodded.

“Well, then we’ll need to treat those first, if there are any. Those would probably o the most damage to his _seidr_ , if it tries to repair it first. Which it might, if the burns are serious.”

Loki made a small noise of discomfort and his eyes fluttered open. Their normal bright green was dim and almost grey, like they were reflecting his emotional and physical state. “Thor…” he mumbled, and winced. His hand went up to his head. Thor grabbed his wrist and gently lowered it back to his side. “Don’t,” he said.

Surprisingly, Loki listened. He lapsed back into unconsciousness, which only concerned Bruce more. “Yeah, better get him to the hospital. Call Haldis. They might be able to help.”

****

Haldis was Eir’s trainee. The Chief Healer had had a late shift, so they didn’t want to wake her when Haldis was just as capable. The healer quickly hooked Loki up to a soul forge, which could apparently be taken apart and rebuilt like an IKEA product. They examined Loki’s vitals, which seemed to be fine, except for a slightly elevated heart rate, before agreeing that all the trickster needed was rest to recover from the smoke inhalation.

Thor told them about the headache, which made them frown slightly, but they didn’t think of it as too hindering for his healing. Haldis pulled up a mask to help Loki breathe easily. The god of mischief made a small noise at that, but it seemed to Bruce that he was more content or comfortable now. Haldis swept away with a small nod. Bruce and Thor thanked them profusely. They laughed and left the hospital with another reassurance that Loki would heal swiftly.

Bruce turned back to the prince. Loki looked a lot better than he had a few minutes ago. His face wasn’t drawn in an expression of pain, though he was still unconscious. His breaths were even, which pleased Bruce. What Haldis said was true: Loki was healing fast.

****

Loki opened his eyes blearily. The first thing he noticed was that he was lying in a bed. He felt something on his face and lifted his hand. The smooth plastic of an oxygen mask greeted his fingers. He slowly remembered everything that had happened with the Muspell giant and figured what the mask was for. Thor and Bruce were with him, he remembered. They must have agreed to using the mask. He trusted the doctor’s judgement.

That didn’t stop him from getting antsy. He had nothing to do, and he was sure that he wasn’t going to fall asleep again anytime soon. He pushed himself up onto his elbows and hoisted himself into a half sitting position. His chest ached slightly. He brushed that aside and wrote it off as an aftereffect of inhaling nothing but smoke while he climbed the cliff.

His headache was gone, at least. Norns, it had been terrible. He was glad that he was back on solid ground. He looked up when he heard footsteps. Bruce didn’t look surprised to see Loki sitting up. “Please lie back down,” the scientist said, sounding completely resigned. “Haldis would have my head, and yours, if they see you sitting up.”

Loki nodded slightly, shifting back into his previous position. “That they would.”

****

Bruce stared at the tangled mess of wires and circuitry in his hands. “I don’t know what this is,” he said.

“Neither do we,” Thor said, glancing at Loki. The trickster didn’t turn to look at them. “Don’t drag me into this,” he said, flinging a dagger at one of the Bilgesnipe. “It’s a part of a larger teleport. If you can recalibrate it, we will be able to get out of here and back to Midgard.”

Loki rarely called Earth Midgard anymore, but sometimes he slipped back into his old habits.

“Bruce, surely you can figure this out,” Thor said.

“Thor, I have seven Ph. D’s, but this is out of my level.”

“Bruce,” Loki interrupted, wrestling one of the beasts to the ground, “I have ten, and I have no idea what’s going on either. We’re on a different planet, one I’ve never heard of, and we’re locked in a room with a herd of Bilgesnipe. I think we’re all out of depth here.”

He nodded at Thor and leaped from the Bilgesnipe’s back. Thor jumped into the fray as Loki landed gracefully next to Bruce. “If it helps, I have faith in your resourcefulness. You _did_ create Ultron and Vision, after all.”

“Yeah, but-”

“And I helped create Destiny. I may be of some sort of help to you, if you will tell me what to do.”

Bruce squared his shoulders and peered at the wires. “Does this thing have some sort of interface?”

Loki closed his eyes and waved his hand lightly over the teleport. An interface hovered above the mess of wires, glowing pale pink. Bruce brightened after inspecting the coding. “Oh, this is easy.”

****

The trio landed back in New Asgard in a flash of pink light. Thor and Bruce staggered for a moment as they regained their bearings. Loki made a small sound at the back of his throat and slid down the wall onto the floor, curling in on himself. “Never again,” he mumbled.

Bruce had to admit, the trickster actually looked a bit green. “I think we’re ignoring the more important thing here,” he said.

“Why did they lock us in the room?” Loki guessed. “That’s simple enough, they hated us.”

“Yeah, no, I had that figured out. Since when did you have ten Ph.D’s?”

“ _That’s_ what you’re concerned about? Bruce, I’ve lived for over a thousand years. I’m a scholar. I thought it would do me good to have a certification of Midgardian education,” Loki said with a slight shrug.

“What fields d’you have them in?” Bruce asked curiously, sitting down next to the prince. Thor had left them to go talk to Brunnhilde.

“Politics and International Relations,” Loki said, trying to remember. “Law, Ancient Languages, Classics, Sociology, Psychology… oh, what else?” He frowned for a moment, before his expression cleared. “History – Medieval History, Literature, Dramatic Arts-”

“Wait, so you’re qualified to act?”

Loki looked amused. “Who do you think wrote the play on Asgard?”

Bruce frowned. “What… play?”

Loki’s eyes widened. His face was red. “Anyway,” he said, in the most abrupt topic change, “I also finished my degree in Linguistics. Quite recently, actually.”

“How recently?”

Loki looked away, but Bruce could see the small smile on the trickster’s face. “A week ago recently.”

“ _What_? You’ve been balancing helping Thor rule New Asgard with college?” Bruce thought back about how sleep-deprived Loki had seemed in the last few months. “Huh, that explains a few things.”

Loki chuckled.

“Like how you walked into that lamppost the other day and apologized to it.”

“Gee, thanks, Bruce,” Loki said sarcastically. “I had to submit my paper which I had put off since I’d been, you know, coughing the smoke out of my lungs.”

“You have a point there.”

They grinned at each other. Loki bounded to his feet and extended a hand for Bruce to take. Bruce pulled himself up easily. “Thor’s gone to make dinner,” Loki commented. “Let’s see what he burned this time.”


End file.
